


The Perfect Leaf

by MusictoMii



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Fix-It, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 08:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusictoMii/pseuds/MusictoMii
Summary: Eddie spent an entire month in the hospital after defeating IT in the summer of 2016.Three years later, Richie takes him for an autumn drive through the White Mountains.





	The Perfect Leaf

**Author's Note:**

> My fiancé and I went leaf peeping through the White Mountains yesterday and I couldn't get this idea out of my head. It's quick and kinda messy but enjoy.
> 
> Set after IT Chapter Two

Eddie spent an entire month in the hospital after the Losers club officially beat IT in the summer of 2016. He doesn’t remember much between being thrown across the cave under the sewer, gaping hole in his stomach right below his rib cage, and waking up in a sterile, blindingly white hospital room two days later, all five of the other Losers asleep in chairs around him and Richie’s hands clasped desperately around his own. He remembers pain, Richie’s face pushed close to his own, tight hands pulling him into a warm body, and then nothing.

When he comes too, it’s with a tiny whimper and a mumbled, “fuck me”, as the pain in his midsection roars into awareness. He unconsciously squeezes the hands holding his as he screws his eyes shut tighter, trying to will the pain away. He distantly hears a breathy, “Eddie?” as one hand leaves his and settles gently on his cheek instead.

“Eddie? Hey. Eds. You’re okay. You’re safe. We all are. Just breathe.”

Eddie focuses on Richie’s words and tries to regulate his breathing. He can feel Richie softly stroking his cheekbone with his thumb.

“That’s it. You’re doing so well. Can you open those pretty eyes for me?”

He does, squinting against the bright light that’s bearing down on him from the ceiling. Richie makes a soft noise before briefly disappearing from Eddie’s side. A table lamp is switched on and the overhead light turns off and then Richie is back, one hand back on his cheek and the other intertwining their fingers next to Eddie’s leg.

“There you are.” The expression on Richie’s face is incredibly soft and his eyes are watery. “Welcome back to the land of the living, Eduardo.”

A soft gasp from beside them interrupts Eddie before he can say anything. He sees movement in the corner of his eye and then Bev is there, grabbing his other hand. Her sudden movement wakes the other men and then Eddie is surrounded by his friends, being looked at with five expressions full of so much love and joy and relief that he feels his eyes fill with tears. Richie slides his hand off Eddie’s cheek and places it on top of their joint hands, clasping Eddie’s firmly between his own.

“Eddie,” Bev has silent tears rolling down her cheeks as her eyes dart over Eddie’s face, checking for signs of discomfort. “How are you feeling, honey?”

Eddie grimaces. “Hurts,” He whispers letting his eyes fall momentarily closed again.

“I’ll get a nurse.” He opens his eyes as Mike leaves the room and glances at each of his friends.

“What happened?”

“We killed it.” Bill looks at him with a small smile. “You were right, Eddie. We just had to make him feel small. It worked.”

Eddie grinned then hissed in pain as he attempted to shift his legs. He glanced down where his stomach was covered by his hospital gown and a bedsheet. “How’d I get here? Last thing I remember is someone grabbing onto me and then nothing.”

He watches three pairs of eyes flick quickly to Richie who has yet to take his gaze from Eddie’s face. Ben’s the one who speaks.

“We carried you. Richie first, then Mike, then myself. Once we were out of the house Richie and Bev took you in Richie’s rental and the rest of us met you here. You were in surgery for a long time. It uhh…” Ben hesitated for a moment. “It was pretty touch and go for a while. You’ve been out for two days.”

Eddie looked at his friends in wonder then turned to make eye contact with Richie. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the door opened and a nurse came in quickly followed by Mike.

“Mr. Kaspbrak. It’s nice to see you finally awake. Let’s get you something for your pain.”

Bev, Ben, Bill, and Mike retreated back to their chairs to give the nurse room to work but Richie stayed put, hands still holding Eddie’s tightly. The nurse worked around him without saying anything, as if she was used to the taller man being in her way. Eddie looked at Richie again and furrowed his eyebrows in curiosity. Richie didn’t say anything, just smiled and squeezed his hand.

After a moment Eddie felt his pain begin to ebb away and closed his eyes with a quiet hum. He suddenly felt very tired. He heard his friends speak softly to the nurse, then the quiet click of the door closing. He struggled to reopen his eyes and felt Richie start stroking his thumb over the back of his hand.

“It’s okay, Eds.” Eddie felt something soft and warm touch the back of his hand. “Go to sleep. We’ll still be here when you wake up.”

Eddie heard a mumbled agreement from the others, felt a hand brush his hair off of his forehead, and then sank into the blissful nothingness of sleep.

***

All of the Losers decided to stay in Derry until Eddie was released from the hospital.

One week into his stay he found himself alone with Ben who told him he had never seen Richie cry as hard as he had when Eddie passed out under the sewer.

Two days later, Mike told him Richie barely left his side until he woke up, only eating when food was brought to him and only leaving to shower when someone told him that Eddie wouldn’t want to see him still covered in dried blood and grey water when he woke up.

Bill told him, three days after that, that it took two full hours to convince Richie that it was okay if he stayed at the townhouse to get a decent night’s sleep; that someone would stay with Eddie until Richie came back.

Two weeks into his stay Bev sat with him and did not talk about Richie. Instead she told him about Tom. She told him of all the ways he was like her father and how she’s so angry at herself for forgetting and falling back into the same cycle of abuse. In turn, Eddie told Bev about Myra, and they cried together until Richie came waltzing in with an assorted bag of Eddie’s favorite chocolate.

Four days after his talk with Bev, Eddie asked all of the Losers to sit with him while he called his wife. The moment Myra answered, screaming into the phone loud enough for everyone to hear, they all scooted up to the bed and placed reassuring hands on him. When Eddie told Myra he wasn’t coming home, Richie interlocked their fingers. When he told her he wanted a divorce, he got five supportive squeezes. When he hung up on her mid scream and immediately blocked her number, he got pulled into a group hug, tucked his face into Richie’s neck, and laughed, feeling lighter than he had in years.

***

By some unspoken agreement, when Eddie was released from the hospital, it was Richie who was there to pick him up. He listened intently as the doctor explained how to properly take care of the wound, accepted Eddie’s discharge papers, and offered his arm to help Eddie to his rental car. Eddie, who would need a cane to help him walk for the foreseeable future and didn’t actually need Richie’s help, accepted his arm with a shy smile.

Before taking him back to the townhouse where the rest of the Losers were waiting to celebrate Eddie’s freedom, Richie took Eddie to the kissing bridge, nervously pointed out the large carving that read “R+E”, and began rambling about how he’d loved Eddie since they were kids, how he doesn’t know what he would have done if Eddie hadn’t made it, and how he couldn’t let Eddie go without telling him how he felt. 

Eddie shut him up with a kiss.

When they walked into the townhouse half an hour later (hand in hand, with bright smiles and red faces), the rest of the Losers cheered and descended on them in a flurry of congratulations, knowing smiles, and well wishes.

***

“Let’s go for a drive.”

It was three years later. After leaving Derry, Eddie had moved to LA where he and Richie bought a small, one story house, and adopted a small dog named Sandwich. (Eddie was pissed when he came home from physical therapy, one day after getting the dog, to find that Richie had already trained him to only respond to that name.)

Richie was touring again, under a new manager and with brand new, self written material. The first thing Richie had done upon returning to LA (other than buying a new house and gently, but enthusiastically, christening every room inside it with Eddie), was find a new manager and request a talk show appearance where he opened up about his sudden disappearance and where he’d been. He talked about Stan’s death, going back to his hometown for the first time since high school, and how he’d reunited with the love of his life who had almost died and who he’d been helping nurse back to health. When Richie announced that the love of his life was a man, the live studio audience cheered so loudly that Richie jumped in astonishment and started to cry from how overwhelmingly positive it was.

After the show, Eddie greeted him backstage with a long kiss and whispered into his ear how proud of him he was. When the interview went viral, the Loser’s group chat exploded with words of love and pride and promises to get together to celebrate soon.

Now, nearing the end of an East Coast tour, Richie and Eddie found themselves back in New England for the first time since the summer of 2016. Eddie was only working part time, still not physically able to work full time hours, and therefore was free to join Richie on tour quite often. Currently in Meredith, New Hampshire, Richie had a full day off to rest between the show the previous night and the final show of the tour in Portland. He had been offered a larger venue in Bangor, but he and Eddie both agreed that Portland was as close to their hometown as they were willing to go. 

Eddie glanced up at Richie from where he was sitting cross legged on their hotel bed, gently running a brush down Sandwich’s stomach. The small dog was spread out on his back, blissfully panting and savoring the attention.

“A drive? Where?”

Richie smiled and sat down next to him, scratching lightly under Sandwich’s chin. “I thought we could go up to the White Mountains. It’s peek leaf peeping season. I bet it’s gorgeous up there right now.”

Eddie made a soft noise of interest and nodded his head with a bright smile. Richie gave him a soft kiss.  
Half an hour later, they were cruising up the highway, hands loosely clasped over the gearshift between them, and Sandwich propped up against the door in back, intently watching the scenery fly by them. Richie had been right. The leaves were all different shades of red, orange, and green, mixing beautifully together and making Eddie smile wide in the passenger seat. 

His smile grew about 20 minutes later as they came up to an intersection and Richie turned left onto the Kancamagus Highway. He gave Richie’s hand a squeeze and the taller man sent him a warm glance. 

Near the top of the pass, just after the sign that read “Kancamagus Pass Elevation 2855”, Richie pulled the car into a scenic overlook and put it in park. 

“Fancy a walk, my love?” Eddie nodded and scrambled out of the car, grabbing his cane just in case. He no longer relied on it to walk during his day to day activities, however the cold still made his injury ache and made it harder to catch his breath. Richie followed him quickly, ducking into the back seat to attach Sandwich to his leash and placing him gently on the ground. Sandwich immediately trotted over to Eddie and propped himself up on his leg for a head scratch. Eddie chuckled and complied.

“Sandwich and I are gonna find you the best, most beautiful leaf on this here overlook!” Richie exclaimed, throwing an arm around Eddie’s shoulder and beginning to lead him across the parking lot. Eddie threw his head back and laughed, feeling completely at ease and full of love for the man next to him. 

The path to the actual scenic part of the overlook was not very long, however they kept getting pulled away as Sandwich ran through the fallen leaves. Eventually they found their way next to a large gazebo (“They’re bullshit!” Richie whispered to Eddie under his breath. Eddie rolled his eyes fondly), in front of a wooden fence which separated them from a steep hill. The view was breathtaking and Eddie found himself leaning into Richie, turning to press his face into Richie’s collar and mumbling and quiet, “I love you”. Richie pulled Eddie closer and kissed his forehead.

The pair stood quietly for a moment before Richie guided Eddie to a bench and told him to sit while he and Sandwich fulfilled their promise of finding him the best leaf. Eddie watched in fond bemusement as Richie and their dog took off, bouncing from leaf pile to leaf pile. While Richie hunted, Eddie snapped a quick photo of him to send to their friends (he captioned it “leaf hunting masters” and received a plethora of heart eyes emojis from Bev), then turned back to the mountain view in front of him and let out a content sigh. A moment later Sandwich ran up to him and pulled his attention back to Richie who was stood next to him with his free hand behind his back and a shy smile on his face. 

“Did you find the perfect leaf?” Eddie smiled up at him and reached forward to take Sandwich’s leash from his hand. Rather than letting go, Richie grabbed onto Eddie’s hand and pulled him to his feet. Eddie looked at him in curiosity but allowed himself to be pulled up. 

Once they were face to face, hands still held loosely together over Sandwich’s leash, Richie ducked his head and let out a breathy laugh. 

“What’s going on, Rich?” 

Richie looked up to catch his eyes and Eddie was surprised to note that Richie’s eyes were a little watery. Before Eddie could react, Richie began to speak.

“I love you so much, Eds. I love you so fucking much. I loved you when we were kids, I loved you when I couldn’t remember who you were, and I loved you three years ago when I saw you again in that Chinese restaurant. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I’ve been these last three years. Being able to call you mine and coming home to you everyday feels like all of my dreams are finally coming true. I want to feel like that for the rest of our lives.”

Eddie gasped as Richie pulled his free hand out from behind his back. In it, he held a large, gorgeous red leaf, speckled with bits of orange and a spattering of brown. Around the stem, held in place by Richie’s thumb and pointer finger, was a slim, silver ring. Eddie looked back up at Richie with wide, tear filled eyes, and watched as his sank to one knee.

“I had to let you go once, Eddie, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I don’t ever want to do that again. Will you marry me?”

Eddie was distantly aware of cameras flashing around them and of Sandwich jumping against his leg as he stared down at the man he loved. A blinding smile lit up his face.

“Yes! Yes, of course I’ll marry you, Richie!” He threw his arms around the other mans neck and felt himself be lifted slightly off the ground as Richie rose to his feet and wrapped his own arms tightly around Eddie’s waist. “I love you.”

Richie set Eddie back on his feet then stepped back to look at him with a blinding smile of his own. Lifting Eddie’s left hand, he took the ring from around the leaf stem and gently slid it onto Eddie’s ring finger. He placed a gentle kiss over the cool metal. “I love you, too.”

The moment was interrupted by Sandwich letting out a quick bark. Eddie laughed and bent to scoop him into his arms. Richie put his arm around Eddie and tugged until Eddie buried his smiling face into his neck. Richie grinned and took a quick selfie, Eddie pressed against him and Sandwich held between them, the ring on Eddie’s finger prominent against the dog’s fur. 

He sent it to the Losers with the caption, “family <3” and pulled Eddie into another hug as congratulations and excited words of love poured in from their friends.


End file.
